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Defending ‘Conscience,’ Restricting Rights

Having lost the fight over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell—repealed a year ago this month— Senators James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Roger Wicker of Mississippi are trying to make it as hard as possible for gay men and lesbians to exercise their civil rights while serving their country in the armed forces.

Following the lead of the Tea Party-drunk House, they presented legislation on Tuesday that would forbid the performance of any marriage or “marriage-like” ceremony on a military base between two people of the same sex.
It also would allow any military chaplain to decline to perform such a ceremony if it goes against his or her conscience.

President Obama and his administration, Mr. Inhofe said, have “begun to pressure military chaplains to fall in line with their liberal same-sex marriage agenda. This bill protects military chaplains from being forced to go against their conscience and religious beliefs in regard to this issue. This is something the chaplains that serve this country need and deserve.”

No one’s pressuring military chaplains to do anything of the kind. Military chaplains are not required to perform any ceremony, whether it’s a marriage or anything else.

It is, however, Pentagon policy that military facilities may be used for same-sex marriages in states that recognize them. The ban Mr. Inhofe and Mr. Wicker want to place on those ceremonies is clearly discriminatory. It’s—dare I say it—an imposition on the “conscience” of military chaplains who think same-sex couples deserve the same marriage rights as straight couples.

This legislation is part of a larger fight over the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and which the Obama administration has stopped defending in courts. Rep. Steve King of Iowa said recently on his website: “The military is an entity of the federal government, and federal law states that marriage is between a man and a woman. Despite this, the Obama administration has allowed same sex marriages to occur on military bases.”

Remember what DOMA means. If two soldiers of the same sex marry legally in a state with marriage equality, and then one is killed, his or her spouse will have no survivor rights under federal law, no official recognition, no benefits.